Kashmir-Kanyakumari road connectivity by April 2026: Nitin Gadkari

The government is working to establish road connectivity between Kashmir and Kayakumari by April next year.

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari made the ambitious announcement in Hyderabad on Monday, where he unveiled projects worth over Rs 5,000 crore.

“We talk about Kashmir to Kanyakumari. By April next year, we will realise this dream on ground and I will urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to travel by car from Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh to Kanyakumari in the south. By then we will have completed the project to connect north and south by road,” he announced amid applause.

The project involves connecting major nerve centres across north and south India by road.

Gadkari said the projects conceives connectivity from Himachal Pradesh’s Rohtang Pass to the south.

“We have constructed the Atal Tunnel that has reduced travel time to Rohtang Pass to just eight minutes. Beyond that we are building eight tunnels till Ladakh’s Leh and new roads. Below Kargil, Asia’s largest 12 km Zojila tunnel is underway and 75 per cent work is over. The PM has already inaugurated the Z-Morh Tunnel which will lead to Srinagar. Between Srinagar and Jammu, 36 tunnels are being constructed and 23 are complete,” said Gadkari.

He mentioned the new under-construction Katra-Amritsar-Delhi highway and the onward road to Gujarat’s Surat, which commuters can access once they hit the Delhi-Mumbai highway.

“To reach South India, we are constructing a new express highway from Surat to Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Solapur, Kurnool, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kanyakumari, Kochi and Trivandrum,” he said, adding, “we are about to realise our Kashmir to Kanyakumari dream on ground.”

The upcoming Surat-Solapur-Kurnool-Chennai highway has 1,100 km in Telangana and 53 per cent work is over.

India